People want desperately to believe, and they believe in those who shouldn’t be believed, much less believed in. From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com:
Those of us who pursue positive change are very often frustrated. We see the necessity of change all too clearly, and we can explain how it should come about, but it never seems to happen.
The truth, however, is that change does come; it just comes more slowly than we’d like, and in ways that differ from those we imagined.
One real change I like to point out is the passing of blind trust in politicians. In the 1950s and ‘60s, most people spoke of politicians with respect and even with reverence. Now it’s almost standard for people to agree that they’re liars and thieves. That’s a very significant change, even if it did take several decades to unfold.
So, a significant change has occurred in our time, and over a very broad base. Still, most people are hanging on, and often desperately, to old ways that should really be abandoned.
The Automatic Benefit of the Doubt
It’s a bit troubling to see how blindly, and for how long, people give the benefit of the doubt to hierarchy and its operators. They can know that a system is abusing them, and they can complain about it at length, but still they grasp at reasons to keep believing in it.
I agree with you, Paul, though – alas, I shall not live to see the result. I may see the tearing asunder of the “order” we have come to take for granted, but not what shall be erected to “restore” it.
Mankind must redefine “morality” and what constitutes “virtue.” Unless or until it is consistent with the indomitable nature of Man – qua man, compulsory “sacrifice” and mandated altruism shall continue to produce what it inevitably must produce!
Produce it in the face of the unprecedented political experiment in governance that produced American “exceptionalism.”
An “exceptionalism” based, unfortunately, on the accepted tired, worn, yoke of moral collectivism!